Holwerda Family Camping Trip: Estes Park, Colorado

We drove 1350 miles to get to Estes Park, CO to camp with the Holwerda clan for a week at Moraine Campground which is located in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was truly a beautiful place to be! This picture was taken from my little bro's campsite!

Here is a picture of our campsite. As you can see...not a grassy place but rather lots & lots of dirt and rocks!! Jaelyn had no problem playing in it and she even managed to eat a bunch of it! :)

Just a typical day camping...always dirty!! This picture doesn't even do it justice because both her t-shirt & shorts are filthy too! Thank goodness for bath time in the rubber maid totes!

A family photo op on the hike up to Mill Lake.

Having a great time playing with Daddy!

The whole Holwerda clan together! People came from Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, California, & Costa Rica!

All 10 great-grandkids (plus 2 in the "oven")

Alberta Falls/Mill Lake Adventure

On Monday morning all 38 of the Holwerda crew set off for a hike up to Alberta Falls. Little did we know what was in store for us later in the afternoon!! We hiked to the falls and enjoyed the scenery & fellowship, ate some snacks, and even a few risk takers climbed down into the falls! A bunch of us decided to continue on with the hike and go about 2.5 more miles to reach Mill Lake...


...We reached Mill Lake and soon storm clouds started coming towards us! We quickly decided to head back down the mountain so that we wouldn't get caught in it (or so we thought!). None of us were prepared for a thunderstorm..we were all in t-shirts & shorts b/c it was a hot day! As we were hiking down the mountain the rain started to pick up a bit and the lightening/thunder was quickly moving towards us! We reached a point in the hike where a bunch of people were taking shelter from the elements...not sure if it was the safest thing to do (hover under a huge rock...see pic below)...but we decided to do it too. We thought we could wait out the storm and stay dry under the rock....


...but, the rain started to pour and eventually a waterfall was created and we were getting soaked under the rock! Besides getting drenched the temperature was also getting colder. It dropped ~30 degrees. Now we were wet & cold. Not a good combo. Jaelyn started shivering and crying and a young kid (not in our group) gave up his warm sweatshirt so that we could cover her up in it. We were so thankful for this random act of kindness!! After waiting a few more minutes, we decided to make a run for it. We were getting drenched anyways...so we thought we might as well hike down the mountain & get to real shelter quicker. There was practically a river running down the trail, but we were able to make it down to the trail head.

Amazingly Jaelyn slept the whole way down the mountain! At first I was worried that we weren't hearing any sort of peep out of her...but then realized she was fast asleep. :) Marcus & I took turns carrying her down the mountain (3+ miles). We safely made it back to the trail head....cold & wet...but we made it. We striped Jaelyn down and dried her off in the truck & blasted the heat. Ahhh...the warmth felt so good. Next time we'll be prepared. Even if it's 90 degrees outside and blue sky we'll still pack rain gear and a sweatshirt! Or, better yet...we'll get off the mountain before the storm comes barreling through!

The morning drive...

Every morning Jaelyn would wake up early...thanks to the sun shining through the tent. So, Marcus would take a drive with her so that I could sleep longer (as well as the other campers near us!) Marcus also took this opportunity to look for some animals. He saw a bunch of deer, elk & coyotes! Too bad there were no bear sightings (even if there was a rumor going around about a bear sighting 4 days in a row!)

Jaelyn would typically fall back asleep on the drive which was great!

One of the bucks Marcus came across on his morning drives.

More camping pictures....

Jaelyn was a big fan of everyone else's toys on this trip. :) Aidan-thank you for sharing your dump truck with Jaelyn!

The Post family: Marcus, Jaelyn, Me, Kim, Dan, Aidan (yes, he's picking his nose!) , Brian, Heather, & Dad

Jaelyn saw Elijah licking a sucker...so she wanted one! Elijah gave her his favorite sucker flavor: sour apple. This was her first sucker...and boy did she love it! She was definitely sticky all over!!

Only a couple days left in the trip and Jaelyn finally warmed up to my dad! Better late than never!! :)

Jaelyn's 15 month update

Height: 32 1/4 inches (93%)
Weight: 21 lbs 13 3/4 oz (40%)
Vocabulary: Daddy, peese (aka please), what's that?, who's that?, bee, dog-dog, yes, ba (aka ball). Still NO mommy!!
Signs "all done" and "more". I haven't really practiced this with her...only a few times here and there...so I was surprised when she started doing it at meal times and other times throughout the day! It's fun to 'communicate' with her! However, she tells me numerous times that she's "all done" while riding in her car seat. She pulls at the buckle and signs "all done". Jaelyn definitely doesn't like to be sitting still...always on the go!
Shoes size: 5 1/2 (but I bought size 6 so that she'll 'grow' into them). This is after I tried putting on her size 4 sandals and realized that both her toes & heels were off the sandal! Oops!
Teeth: 10 (thanks to getting 4 last week!)
Favorite foods: blueberries, grapes, nectarines, cherries, peanut butter, honey nut cheerios..well I guess really anything that I eat! I haven't found any food she doesn't like. The only weird quirk of hers is that she'll eat bananas only if its the first thing you put on her tray. If she has eaten something else...she won't have anything to do with it!
Sleep: Is transitioning to 1 nap/day. I'm sad that I won't have my hour in the morning to get things done...but for the last 4 days she hasn't needed a morning nap. She still goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up around 7am. I'm so thankful that she is a good sleeper! She takes after her Momma.
Loves: to climb! She's our little monkey. She climbs up onto everything! Couches, coffee tables, chairs...you name it...she tries to get onto it.

Teething machine!

Jaelyn decided to cut not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 TEETH this week! What I thought were 2 teeth popping through while we were camping has turned into 4 (the two bottom teeth plus 1 upper molar & 1 lower molar). She may also be getting another lower molar, but that pearly white hasn't come through quite yet. So I guess she has a good excuse for why she has been so crabby & snotty the last week or so! She is such a Momma's girl right now and would rather me hold her all the time. Unfortuately, Daddy can't even really console her at times. Poor baby girl! Here's hoping to a better day tomorrow and no more teeth popping through!

"Mommy....teething is NO fun!"

I've resorted to catching the snot only when she's about to eat it! Her nose is so raw from wiping it so many times!

Can't wait until she figures out how to blow her snot into the kleenex!

Lake Pearrygin State Park

We just got back from our first camping trip this summer. We arrived at Lake Pearrygin State Park on Thursday and returned home Monday (after spending Wednesday with our good friends Adam & Katie in Wenatchee). It was such a fun camping trip! The weather was great...hot, but not too hot! There were 8 families that all camped together...all had little kiddos running around which were instant play mates for Jaelyn. She loved running around & playing with other kid's toys! She did great camping until she decided to get sick AND cut 3 teeth! I thought she was only cutting her two bottom teeth but I just noticed her 2nd molar popping through today. Poor girl! We all survived..but had a few long nights in the tent! (Not to mention getting up super-duper early because the sun was shining in the tent...i.e 5:20am, 4:30am, etc!!)

Here's Jaelyn trying out Riley's bike! She can't reach the pedals yet...but that didn't stop her from trying!

Jaelyn had her first boat ride while we were camping too! One of the families that came brought their speed boat so we were able to enjoy getting on the water!! She enjoyed watching Daddy wake board!

Go, Marcus go!! There isn't a picture of me up on the wake board...'cause, well...I didn't manage to get up out of the water!! Oh, well! :) My excuse is that the water was really choppy!

We put Jaelyn to work drying the pots/pans! Never to early to start! Ha!!

Playing with Daddy is always so much fun...especially with other kids' toys! Thanks Jacob & Isaiah for sharing!

Bath time!!
Loungin' in her own chair with Audrey's elmo ipod!

Cousin Elisabeth (8 months) and Jaelyn wearing coordinating outfits!

Jaelyn enjoyed playing in her swimming pool. She was fussy quite a bit because of her teeth/cold, but the moment we stuck her in the pool she forgot all about the pain and had lots of fun! :)

Just a cute shot of our little miss Jaelyn! So precious!

We leave for Colorado next week Friday for another week of camping...this time with my family. We can't wait to see everyone! It should be a great time!! :)